with Ashmedai’s scream. But when the light fades, he’s still standing in one piece, more enraged than before. As for me, my vision is speckled with black dots and my muscles are on the verge of giving out on me. I’m completely depleted.
“You’ll pay for this, witch.” The demon takes a step forward, but the sharp point of Saxon’s katana pierces his thorax from behind.
“No, you’ll pay for hurting my mate,” he snarls.
The katana’s tip disappears, leaving a growing stain in its place. Ashmedai laughs again, staring at the wound. “Do you think you can kill me, bloodsucker? I’m a fuck—”
He’s unable to finish his tirade. Saxon’s katana slashes through his neck as if it were made out of butter, severing his head in a precise cut.
Holy shit!
In the blink of an eye, Saxon is crouching next to me with his arm wrapped around my shoulder. “My love, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
His hand is shaking when he cups my face and looks into my eyes. “I’m so sorry. I got here as fast as I could.”
“Don’t apologize. All that matters is that you got here.”
“I love you so much. I don’t know what I’d have done if I had been too late.”
My heart swells with emotion, and I’d like nothing more than to bask in the feeling, but the atmosphere changes around us. The cold wind picks up in speed, bringing a foul stench with it. We both turn to the headless body just in time to see a thick, dark smoke emerge from it. Ashmedai.
“Damn it. He’s not dead?” Saxon asks.
“No. I don’t think demons can be killed the same way vampires can. Come on, Sax. We need to get out of here.”
He stands, pulling me with him. But the smoke is massive and quickly coming our way. Shit. What if it possesses one of us? Shouts in the distance halt its progress. It hovers close to us like an angry storm cloud. That is, if storm clouds felt as evil as the thing in front of us.
“This isn’t over,” the smoke says before zapping in the opposite direction of the small group approaching.
I let out a relieved sigh, melting into Saxon’s body. I’m only standing upright because he’s holding me. The small group coming near us is not who I’d expect to see coming to the rescue. The two warlocks from Ivern, Ryker and Declan, Solomon, Miranda, Rikkon, and my mother.
“What the hell happened?” Ryker is the first to ask, eyeballing the carnage.
“Elena got her hands on the first grimoire and summoned a demon called Ashmedai with it.”
Ryker and Declan curse out loud and trade a troubled look.
Solomon walks over to the witch’s corpse and whistles. “I guess she didn’t get what she thought she would.”
“The demon killed her soon after he possessed Calvin’s body.”
“And who had the brilliant idea of trying to kill a demon by decapitating the host?” My mother glares at Saxon.
“That fucker was about to kill us both. I have no regrets,” he spits back.
“Calvin was already dead when Ashmedai took control of his body,” I add.
“The council will never believe you’re telling the truth,” she retorts. “Not after Calvin officially complained about you and your vampire lover.”
“The spell for the demon’s summoning is proof of that,” I argue, immediately remembering that won’t help me. Damn it.
“And where is the grimoire?” She searches the ground, wrinkling her nose as she scans past Elena’s body.
“Ashmedai burned it.”
She snorts. “How convenient.”
“With all due respect, ma’am, we have bigger problems than your personal issues with your daughter’s relationship. An archdemon is on the loose. He can possess anyone,” Declan chimes in.
“Anyone? Not only his sacrifice?” My voice comes out a little high-pitched, but who can blame me?
“Summoned demons only possess the corpse of the person sacrificed for a short period of time while they gain strength.”
“Son of a bitch. How do we stop it?” Saxon asks.
“We have to figure out what the demon wants,” Ryker replies.
“Elena has been worshipping him for decades. She claimed to be his bride. I know it’s not much, but maybe there are clues in her apartment,” I say.
Ryker and Declan both stare at me with interest.
“Actually, that’s a great place to start,” Ryker replies.
“He wants the Taluah Mirror,” Rikkon says quietly. His eyes are a little glazed, almost as if he’s in a trance.
“How do you know that?” the worst mother of the year asks.
“Rikkon has visions. It’s how we knew where to find Aurora,” Miranda replies.